{"id":9821,"date":"2017-08-28T12:44:32","date_gmt":"2017-08-28T11:44:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/taggedtalk.com\/blog\/?page_id=526"},"modified":"2017-08-28T12:44:32","modified_gmt":"2017-08-28T11:44:32","slug":"overnight-angels","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.itwriting.com\/blog\/the-ballad-of-mott-the-hoople-and-ian-hunter\/overnight-angels","title":{"rendered":"Overnight Angels"},"content":{"rendered":"

Overnight Angels
CBS 81993<\/p>\n

What do you do when you make a great album, but it doesn\u2019t sell as well as it deserves? A familiar problem from Mott days. After lacklustre sales for All American Alien Boy, Ian Hunter decided, encouraged by his record company Columbia, to form a new band and make a more energetic rock album.<\/p>\n

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The band that came together was Peter Oxendale on keyboards, Rob Rawlinson on bass, Dennis Elliott on drums (he also played on Hunter\u2019s first solo album), and ex-Bowie sidekick Earl Slick on guitar. Roy Thomas Baker was producer, well known for his work with Queen, and played percussion.<\/p>\n

It seemed somehow appropriate that Hunter should team up with another former David Bowie bandmate following his success with Mick Ronson.<\/p>\n

On 3 February 1977 the band were recording in Canada, west of Montreal, when there was a disaster. A fire destroyed the house they were staying in and while they escaped there were injuries from smoke inhalation and to Baker\u2019s hand after jumping from a third storey window.<\/p>\n

The name of the band and the album was Overnight Angels, a reference to the incident according to the band\u2019s biographer Campbell Devine, presumably on the basis that they nearly became \u201cangels\u201d overnight. The song of the same name though has only a very tangential relationship with the episode.<\/p>\n

Hunter says \u201cI did the songs in the wrong key, I sang them too high so it doesn\u2019t sound like me. I think this is the worst album I\u2019ve ever done and it\u2019s the only LP in my whole career that I really regret.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hunter also feels that the mixing and mastering was wrong, optimized for AM radio by Baker when it should have been a big powerful sound.<\/p>\n

\n

The rough mixes were incredible. It really sounded amazing, but Roy had a way at that time of really squeezing the mixes for radio, which is what most good producers do. I was in total disagreement with this, because the thing sounded so panoramic, so huge. I didn’t want it squeezing. I had glandular fever at the time and didn’t fight. Right up until the final mixes it sounded incredible."<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

The idea that if not for the mix\/mastering the record would have been fantastic is rather at odds with Hunter’s other comments about singing in the wrong key, struggling to write the lyrics etc.<\/p>\n

But it would be great to hear a remix done how he wanted. Sadly unlikely.<\/p>\n

Is it that bad? As someone who loved Alien Boy, it does seem to me a step backwards, a retreat from the more mature and reflective songs on the earlier album and a less interesting band.<\/p>\n

It has its moments though. The band is very capable and there are plenty of examples of Hunter\u2019s gift for melody and catchy lyrics.<\/p>\n

The best track is The Ballad of Little Star, a powerful ballad about a native American hooker which references the tragic effects of how \u201cour fathers civilised\u201d her race.<\/p>\n

Tracks:<\/p>\n

Golden Opportunity<\/b> \u2013 a rocker to open with, not terrible but a bit of a thrash<\/p>\n

Shallow Crystals<\/b> \u2013 a ballad whose subject is obscure. Hunter says, \u201cit may simply have been a selection of words that were attracted to each other.\u201d It\u2019s one of the better tracks though with a nice solo from Slick.<\/p>\n

Overnight Angels<\/b> \u2013 a decent rocker though insubstantial. The verse sections are good but the chorus \u201ccan you hear us, can you hear us, we\u2019re talking \u2018bout the overnight angels\u201d is lame.<\/p>\n

Broadway<\/b> \u2013 one senses this could be really good, piano intro and a return to the subject of trying to make it in showbiz. \u201cThe hook is awful\u201d though, says Hunter, and I have to say I agree.<\/p>\n

Justice of the Peace<\/b> \u2013 a bouncy number and an unlikely tale about a shotgun wedding<\/p>\n

(Miss) Silver Dime<\/b> \u2013 I don\u2019t mind this one, a portrait of another \u201cAlice\u201d, maybe a groupie, suggestive lyrics, still thoroughly disposable though.<\/p>\n

Wild \u2018N Free<\/b> \u2013 a forgettable rocker<\/p>\n

The Ballad of Little Star<\/b> \u2013 best song on the album, see above<\/p>\n

To Love a Woman<\/b> \u2013 reminds me of Night on the Town-era Rod Stewart, an OK Hunter ballad but nothing special.<\/p>\n

The band also recorded a single, England Rocks<\/b>, which did not sell but became significant in its guise as Cleveland Rocks on the next album. England Rocks is a bonus track on the Overnight Angels CD. Arguably better than any of the other tracks.<\/p>\n

Incidentally, my \u201cRewind\u201d CD sounds dreadful, especially on tracks like Broadway.<\/p>\n

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Sharp-eyed readers will note that the back sleeve of Overnight Angels shows photos of Peter Oxendale, Earl Slick, Curly Smith and Rob Rawlinson. Odd, because drummer Curly Smith is not on the album (as far as I know). However, the sleeve says "Curly Smith is now the drummer with the Overnight Angels", referencing the fact that Smith replaced Dennis Elliott for the tour which followed the album’s release.<\/p>\n

On the sleeve Ian Hunter also notes that the band "narrowly escaped when a fire reduced the house we were sleeping in to a crater" and thanks various parties for their "immediate and most valuable help".<\/p>\n

Ironically given the desire to make a more commercial record, the album sold even worse than Alien Boy and failed to chart. It was not even released in the USA for somewhat obscure reasons. The moral is that musicians should follow their muse and not try to do what they think their public wants.<\/p>\n

Maybe it is just as well. If Overnight Angels had not flopped, perhaps the band would have stayed together and we would have missed out on Hunter\u2019s next collaboration, which worked out rather better.<\/p>\n

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Cover picture is by David Oxtoby, portrait artist of Oxtoby\u2019s Rockers fame.<\/p>\n

Earl Slick on Overnight Angels:<\/p>\n

\n

That was a great album and a great experience, but from a guitar standpoint the track Wild And Free really stands out. It was really cool because it was an uptempo kind of punky rocker thing, and once again, it was the sort of solo I would have done on a Bowie record. \u201cOvernight Angels was recorded not long after Station To Station, actually, so I was in the same mode, and I even used the same Strat that I used on Stay. It was recorded up in Canada at a place north of Montreal called Le Studio \u2013 and the place burned down while we were recording! It’s a really aggressive guitar part on that track, and it\u2019s one of my favorite cuts off that album. Ian was in a great place, and we really had a great time making that record, except for the fire. The guitar burned up, too.\u200b<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

From here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

He says "great" four times in this quote \":)\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Overnight Angels CBS 81993 What do you do when you make a great album, but it doesn\u2019t sell as well as it deserves? A familiar problem from Mott days. After lacklustre sales for All American Alien Boy, Ian Hunter decided, encouraged by his record company Columbia, to form a new band and make a more … Continue reading Overnight Angels<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":9792,"menu_order":350,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-9821","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.itwriting.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/9821","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.itwriting.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.itwriting.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.itwriting.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.itwriting.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9821"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.itwriting.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/9821\/revisions"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.itwriting.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/9792"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.itwriting.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9821"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}